Those fortunate fans who attended Opening Day on August 18, 1910 could not have had the slightest inkling that their brand new stadium would one day be the oldest active professional ballpark in America. Nor could they have possibly imagined how dramatically baseball would transform itself over the course of a century. Back then there were no high-powered agents, no steroids dominating the sports headlines, no gleaming, billion-dollar stadiums with corporate sky boxes that lit up the neon sky. There was only the wood and the raw hide, the mitt and the cap, and the game as it was played a few miles from downtown Birmingham, Alabama. Allen Barra has journeyed to his native Alabama to capture the glories of a century of baseball lore. In chronicling Rickwood Field's history, he also tells of segregated baseball and the legendary Negro Leagues while summoning the ghosts of the players themselves -Ty Cobb, Honus Wagner, Babe Ruth, Satchel Paige, Josh Gibson, Ted Willians, and Willie Mays - who still haunt baseball's oldest Cathedral. But Rickwood Field, a place where the Ku Klux Klan once held rallies, has now become a symbol of hope and triumph, a stadium that reflects the evolution of a city where baseball was, for decades, virtually the sole connecting point between blacks and whites. While other fabled stadiums have yielded to the wrecker's ball, baseball's Garden of Eden seems increasingly invulnerable to the ravages of time. Indeed, the manually operated scoreboard still uses numbers painted on metal sheets, and on the right field wall, the Burma Shave sign hangs just as it did when the legendary Black Barons called the stadium their own. Not surprisingly, there is no slick or artificial turf here, only grass - and it's been trodden by the cleats of greats from Shoeless Joe Jackson to Reggie Jackson. Drawing on extensive interviews, best-selling author Barra evokes a southern city once rife with racial tension where a tattered ballpark was, and resplendently still is, a rare beacon of hope. Both a relic of America's past and a guidepost for baseball's future, Rickwood Field follows the evolution of a nation and its pastime through our country's oldest active ballpark.

The Baseball Trust is about the origins and persistence of baseball's exemption from antitrust law, which is one of the most curious features of our legal system and also one of the most well known to sports fans. Every other sport, like virtually every other kind of business, is governed by the antitrust laws, but baseball has been exempt for nearly a century. No one thinks this state of affairs makes any sense. The conventional explanation of this oddity emphasizes baseball's unique cultural status as the national pastime, and assumes that judges and legislators have expressed their love for the game by insulating it from antitrust attack. A serious baseball fan, Stuart Banner provides a thoroughly entertaining history of the game through the prism of the antitrust exemption. But he also narrates a very different kind of baseball history, one in which a sophisticated business organization successfully worked the levers of the legal system to achieve a result enjoyed by no other industry in America. For all the well-documented foibles of the owners of major league baseball teams, baseball has consistently received and followed smart antitrust advice from sharp lawyers, going all the way back to the 1910s. At the same time, it is a story that serves as an arresting reminder of the path-dependent nature of the legal system. At each step, judges and legislators made decisions that were perfectly sensible when considered one at a time, but this series of decisions yielded an outcome that makes no sense at all.

Many young coaches, over the years have asked me," How does one climb the ladder in the baseball coaching profession?" This book will give you examples, through real life stories, on how you can move ahead in a coaching career. Someone has coined the phrase, Apples don't fall too far from the tree" or" He comes from good genes or good stock." These statements seem to indicate some successful endeavors are related, to some degree, to genetics. O the other hand, some doors may open because of the success of someone in the family. Not being an expert in genetics, let's leave this to speculation In addition, networking and what it is and how it works will be discussed in The Mainieri Factor, and how it may open doors for you in the coaching profession. Getting your foot in the door is only the beginning, being successful and proving yourself at each level is paramount to moving up the later. This book will give general insight into ways in which you can prove yourself as successful coach. You will be judged as having been a successful coach if you are able to substantially improve the players' skills from the time the players initially come under your tutelage. In the final analysis, the ultimate evaluation of you as a coach and leader will be directly related to your win-lost record In addition, it is essential that you develop the total person so that your players have the tools to meet the vicissitudes of their daily living. The game of baseball is a great laboratory for developing these skills. After reading The Mainieri Factor, you should understand better how the road to success in coaching works. You should find these life stories to be practical, helpful, interesting andentertaining.

This is the story of the Asahi, a Japanese Canadian baseball team that was formed in 1914 and competed in Vancouver's Caucasian leagues between 1918 and 1941. Using a strategy called "brain ball," the smaller Japanese defeated the larger white teams and won a number of championships. This describes what happened to some of these Asahi players after Pearl Harbor when British Columbia's Japanese were sent to internment camps in the province's interior. Here they played an important role in establishing baseball leagues. Following the war, many former Asahis came to eastern Canada where they continued to play an important role in baseball as they began new lives. There is a second story here as well. It is about a former Asahi fan who was determined that the Asahi legend would not die and how she insured that what they meant to the Japanese community before World War II would never be forgotten.

Part reference, part trivia, part brain teaser, and absolutely the most unusual and thorough compendium of baseball stats and facts ever assembled--all verified for accuracy by the Baseball Hall of Fame. First created by legendary sportswriter Bert Randolph Sugar, and now updated, here are thousands of fascinating lists, tables, data, and stimulating facts. Inside, you'll find all of the big name baseball heroes like Babe Ruth, Ted Williams, Ernie Banks, Pete Rose, Denny McLain, Ty Cobb, and a lot of information that will be new to even the most devoted fans: Highest batting averages not to win batting titles Home-run leaders by state of birth Players on last-place teams leading the league in RBIs, by season Most triples by position, season Winners of two "legs" of triple crown since last winner Oldest pitchers with losing record, leading league in ERA Career pitching leaders under six feet tall Managers replaced wile team was in first place Hall of Famers whose sons played in the majors Players with palindromic surnames And so much more! Not just a collection of facts or records, this is a book of glorious fun that will astound even the most bookish baseball fan. Read up and amaze your friends!

When the Brooklyn Dodgers recruited Jackie Robinson from the Negro Leagues' Kansas City Monarchs in 1947, it marked a turning point both in baseball and civil rights history. Robinson became the first African American to play in the Major Leagues, and in doing so, led generations of black players into the previously all-white world of professional baseball. As one of the greatest players professional baseball has ever seen, Robinson fought fiercely for civil rights on and off the diamond throughout his lifetime, and in doing so became a great American hero.

Mary Kay Linge recounts the extraordinary story of Robinson's life-from his early childhood in the South, to his college years at UCLA, to becoming a Hall of Famer and a major figure in the NAACP. In analyzing the surrounding social and cultural contexts of Robinson's time, this biography examines the legacy of a man who forever changed baseball. A timeline, statistical appendix, bibliography of print and electronic sources for further reading, and photographs enhance this biography.